IN THE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION Timothy Garton Ash On this year’s anniversary of the June 17, 1953, uprising in East Germany, Fritz Stern, the Seth Low Professor of History at Columbia University, delivered the speech published here to a ceremonial session of the Bundestag in Bonn. The speech is remarkable for several reasons. First, …

Mustafa Tlas, the Syrian minister of defense, has been a friend of the current head of state, President Hafiz al-Assad, since their service together in Egypt. Together with Assad he took part in a conspiracy that at first landed him in jail and then eventually brought his friend to power.